Spohn Hospital, et al. v. Karen Mayer et al.,

The Supreme Court reversed a $1,369,000 jury award against Spohn Hospital finding that the trial court abused its discretion in imposing an excessive discovery sanction. The suit concerned an elderly man who allegedly died due to negligent care at the Hospital. A discovery dispute erupted when the Hospital produced two witness statements thirty-one days before trial. The trial court found that the statements should have been produced six months earlier and sanctioned the Hospital by ordering that the jury be instructed that the witness statements were established facts in the case. One of the statements, for example, was that the nurses ignored the patient’s calls to the nursing station just prior to his death.

The Supreme Court found that the trial court abused its discretion by not properly applying the criteria established in TransAmerican Natural Gas Corp. v. Powell, 811 S.W.2d 913 (Tex. 1991). The Court found that there was no direct nexus among the Hospital’s offensive conduct, the Hospital, and the sanction imposed (i.e., the first factor in the test wasn’t met). The Court also found that the sanction was excessive in that it precluded the Hospital from a defense on the merits. Without commenting on what an appropriate sanction would have been, the Supreme Court ordered a new trial consistent with its holding.